hobbitt wrote: 
so beautiful...

 BasmntMadman wrote: 
  There must be a law about that...

 Prodigal_SOB wrote: 
All you need to do is to find out who in the area bought an expensive telescope at around that time.   Their fault.

 Zep wrote: 
Not exactly easy being on the west coast of the state, but maybe I'll take a late night drive out to the beach to see if I can catch a glimpse.

 newwavegurly wrote: 
Best plan is to find a place where there aren't any lights to the east, the direction from which Gemini will be rising.  

 Zep wrote: 
Thanks for posting this, I'm hoping to get outside and catch it tonight/early tomorrow morning. No bundling up required to do so here.

 Prodigal_SOB wrote: 
I vote for WTF.
 

I don't know it this should be in Astronomy, How's the Weather, or Things that Piss Me Off, but it has been raining here for EVERY meteor shower for the last two years.

 hobbitt wrote: 
Thanks for posting that.  It's a beautiful picture, and it's a great reminder how the Voyagers were amazing pieces of hardware.  

Here's another one from APOD, from the day before.
 

Gemenid meteor over Monument Valley. The belt of Orion is at the top right, angled vertically.Full details here.

 hobbitt wrote:Far Fuckin' Out! 

From Astronomy Picture Of the Data (APOD) for December 13:



Neptune and its moon, Triton

Geminid Meteor Watch.
Dec. 8, 2009: Make hot cocoa. Bundle up. Tell your friends. The best meteor shower of 2009 is about to fall over North America on a long, cold December night.

"It's the Geminid meteor shower," says Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office. "and it will peak on Dec. 13th and 14th under ideal viewing conditions."

A new Moon will keep skies dark for a display that Cooke and others say could top 140 meteors per hour. According to the International Meteor Organization, maximum activity should occur around 12:10 a.m. EST (0510 UT) on Dec. 14th. The peak is broad, however, and the night sky will be rich with Geminids for many hours and perhaps even days around the maximum. 

 BillJ wrote: 

Two factors: 

The Equation of Time.

Earth's (nonuniform) speed around the sun.

Fun fact: The latest sunset and earliest sunrise days change with latitude.

The Official US Time site has a cool, real-time graphic of sunset spreading across the world.  I never really understood why it was dark here when it was light where my dad was in Florida when we talked on the phone until I looked at this.  Now, it's pretty obvious!

 BillJ wrote: 
 
That little quirk always amuses me. A very, very drunk Norwegian merchant seaman told me about it, shortly before toppling off his barstool and crashing to the floor.
 
Good old Frank and Turid. World class boozers.

I know that the solstice isn't for another 10 days, but according to the U.S. Naval Observatory my sunsets are now starting to occur later. My earliest was 4:28, tomorrow will be 4:29, and away we go. Can't wait until it becomes noticeable.
Of course this means that my sunrises will continue to be later and later for a few weeks, with the latest being 7:23am around Jan. 9th, my first daughter's 24th birthday. It's plenty damn dark enough in the morning as it is already, but at least I'll be gaining on the other end.

 Xeric wrote:
Yes, a disadvantage. At least cameras got it right, and I never understood why binoc makers never added the same adapting ring.

btw, here's a great resource for learning backyard observing. Your kids may not understand galaxies and nebulae, but they can definitely relate to the Moon, the planets, and the major constellations.

 Zep wrote: 
That's what I was thinking as I read this.  Gotta have a tripod—and a tripod mount is far from universal on binoculars.  Make sure potential models have one.

 MrsHobieJoe wrote: 
Telescopes are great, but my experience has been that you need to drop serious cash in order to get a good model that has any chance of pulling in objects like Jupiter's moons, Saturn's rings, and deep-sky objects.  Then, if interest in observing wanes, you have an expensive dust collector.

My recommendation would be a good pair of binoculars.  It is quite impressive to look through binocs into the northern winter sky.  They're inexpensive (compared to the reflectors) and portable (no setup), and for a low initial investment, they give you the opportunity to see if you want to go deeper into backyard astronomy.  Binocular observing will help familiarise you with the skies in a way a large scope won't.  Large scopes are great for galaxies, but I would recommend a survey-style approach first.

Here is a 20x80 Celestron for 130 USD. Don't even think about passing on a tripod; the kids will never be able to hold it steady.